


Down

by squick



Category: Megalo Box (Anime)
Genre: Boxing & Fisticuffs, LMFAO - Freeform, Sachio shows up at the end man idk, Swearing, how tf do i tage this, what happens after the big SWING at the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 12:14:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15142859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squick/pseuds/squick
Summary: How the tournament match ends





	Down

**Author's Note:**

> uhhhh megalo box best show of the season, go listen to my english cover of Kakatte Koi Yo, i wrote this in one millisecond, I have a paper due tomorrow that I haven't started, alexa play despacito, bye

“You’re going, aren’t you?” Yuri grins. There’s still twenty-nine seconds left of this fucking round.

 

“Yeah.” Joe replies. They’re down to twenty-five and this has been going on for way too long.

 

_What am I doing right now?_

 

They both prep, take a step, then another, and swing.

They connect with some twenty-one-and-a-half seconds left, but damn, this punch couldn’t have come soon enough.

 

_I’m living the best moment of my life._

 

The crowd is still raving until the thump resounds through the stadium. Both announcers lean into the mic to scream,

 

“Down!”

 

And suddenly, silence.

 

His vision is blurry, like he’s blinking in and out of existence, and right now the darkness seems the more real of the two. But he’s sure about the taste. Metallic, abundant, streaming into his mouth. He knows it well. Blood. It’s warm. It means he’s still alive.

 

“-Two!”

 

The sound is back. He can hear now. The crowd is screaming again, the announcer is counting, and Joe wants nothing more than to stay on the ground. He blinks again, squeezing his eyes shut like that’ll make the yelling stop. It doesn’t. It never does.

 

“-Five!”

 

He opens one eye, and amidst the blur, he can see straight across from him - the silver hair, the hulking shoulders, the welts of redness encompassing his upper body. Some have started turning blue already, like he’s recovering from the surgery anytime soon. There are new bruises, fresh, bright red. Joe knows that he made those. He made those and Yuri - _Yuri_ , there’s a name, his senses are coming back a little - is still down.

 

“-Six!”

 

Fuck it.

Someone might as well win this match.

 

Every muscle in his body is screaming at him but he can’t help that his arms want nothing more than another swing, one more shot, he can’t stop them from lifting his corpse of a body. His legs don’t take much convincing. One foot, underneath. It hurts like a bitch to bend his knees, his arms are shaking, and he can feel the blood dripping down his face. Other foot. He’s only got two, so that shit’s handled.

 

The crowd is losing their collective hive mind. Joe wishes that Yuri had knocked the hearing clean out of him, because they’re not helping to stop the searing pain in his head.

 

“-Seven…”

 

Extend the knees, and you’re up. He’s up, and the crowd goes wild.

 

Yuri’s still got three seconds to pull something out of his ass.

 

“Hey - Hey, _Yuri_.”

 

It hurts to talk and Joe is feeling confident that that straight Yuri sent into his face broke his fucking jaw or something, but he’s speaking with the sweetest venom he can muster at the moment.

 

“-Eight!”

 

“Get up!” He hopes that Yuri can hear him over this loud ass audience. Christ. “You got one more in ya, don’t you?”

 

“-Nine!”

 

But, apparently, he doesn’t.

 

“ **Ten!** ”

 

And the audience and announcers are all over the fucking place. He’s sure that they’re saying something but he can’t hear for shit anyway, and he’s glad he can’t because _fuck_ , Yuri’s still down.

 

Again, his limbs just kind of do whatever they want on impulse, and his legs are carrying him over to the body still splayed out before him.

 

That’s all they can do for him before they give out. Joe crumples down next to him and he is hit with the very sudden recollection that Yuri has no one in his corner right now.

 

Except for, well, Joe. Right now. In a literal sense.

 

Joe grabs the other man’s face between his hands and  _damn it_ , Yuri hasn’t said a rude yet simultaneously encouraging word to him _yet_.

 

What if he’s dead? What’re you supposed to do with a dead guy that actually has a name? You can’t just dump those bodies out back or in the river or in the yard - someone’s supposed to _get_ them. Someone’s supposed to give him a headstone. This is a champion we’re talking about here - someone’s supposed to care, if he’s dead -

 

Fuck. What if he’s dead?

 

He shakes him. That’s probably the opposite of what you’re supposed to do to an unconscious man but god damn it, Joe’s got no medical training and he’s doing his best. He shakes his face, then his shoulders, until Yuri’s mouth gapes open then closes a few times and his eyes shift up to look Joe in the face.

 

There’s blood pouring out of his nose and a new cut on his face, and yeah, he’s in and out of consciousness but he’s still alive. He’s still here.

 

He’s not dead yet.

 

“ _Yuri_ .” Joe hisses again as the injured man’s head lolls to the side in his arms. “Hey, _Yuri_. Wake the hell up.”

 

Yuri seems to halfway snap to attention at the sound of his voice, and blinks a few too many times as he tries to look at him again. He makes a sound caught between a “hm?” and a pained groan.

 

“I won.” Joe says with a grin on his face.

 

Yuri pauses his dying for a second and stares at Joe, square in the face. And then he smiles. It’s the biggest smile Joe’s ever seen on the guy, bigger than when they had their first match, and it looks so stupid on his face that Joe can’t help but laugh.

 

“You _lost,_ dumbass. The hell are you smiling for?” And God, his face aches so much and his ribs are bruised or broken or something but he’s heaving, wheezing, cackling.

 

Yuri laughs too. It’s weaker, and his face contorts in pain the whole time, but he’s laughing too, and this is the first time Joe’s seen that.

 

“Oh, fuck you.” Joe says between ragged breaths, and that’s enough to get Yuri laughing louder, loud enough that he’s embarrassed to the point that he’s using his barely-functional arm to cover his face, which is soaking wet. Sweat, probably. Tears, probably.

 

And then the medics come, they pull Joe off of him, they heave Yuri up onto a stretcher, and he’s gone.

 

Joe’s still in the ring, watching the doors swing closed behind them, laughing his ass off. There’s tears and snot running down his face, but his arms are done for the time being and he can’t wipe it off.

 

Sachio grabs him from behind, sobbing. It hurts like hell. He flops down on the mat.

 

“Joe!” Sachio screams.

 

“That hurts, kid.” He replies.

 

Everyone’s still screeching, but for a split second, the announcer’s voice is actually audible,

 

“The new Megalo Box champion, of the Megalonia tournament -”

 

Everything goes black, and Joe’s happy he doesn’t have to experience any of this bullshit anymore.

 

 _That was fun_ , he thinks.

 

_That was so much fucking fun,_


End file.
